In this tutorial, I will be teaching you some basic of creating a stunning 3D art work of your favorite Final Fantasy XI character.
You will need these software to start this:

• 3D Studio Max 2010 (32bit) - There is no plugin as of yet for the 64bit version.
• Model Viewer
• Metaseq
• .MQO Plugin for 3D Studio Max 2010
• Graphics Converter Ver 3.0
• Image Editing Software like Photoshop CS3

Part 1: Creating the Module

First thing we need to do is create your character module so it can be imported into 3D Studio Max 2010.
So open it up and pick:

1. Tarutaru-M
2. Face: F6-A
3. Head: None
4. Body: Drachen Mail (DRG AF1)
5. Hands: Drachen Fng. Gnt. (DRG AF1)
6. Legs: Drachen Brais (DRG AF1)
7. Main: Darksteel Lance
8. Sub: None
9. Ranged: None

Now on the animation part pick which animation you would like to use.
In this Tutorial I have picked Battle/At2.
Just stop it at the moment you want to capture your posse and then hit Set to MQO.

You will now find the files for this module in your Modle Folder

Part 2: Importing and Editing

Now open up 3D Studio Max 2010, the loading time will take a bit, so at this point why not make your self a cup of Windurst Tea.
Once open go to the icon on the top left hand corner and move down to import.

Now find the location of your Model Viewer and the Modle Folder.
Find the Files of type Metaseq (*.MQO) or much faster All Files (*.*) and pick the one with the name that you have given.

You will be given some options after importing the file, leave it as it is and just press OK.
You should get something like this now.

Now click on the select and move icon (The cross arrows on the top of the tool bar) and high light it all by selecting the area around the whole module.
This is best done on the side view screen.
You can use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the selected screen.
Now drag the module and move it up past the fine black cross lines.
Alternative type in 600 in the Z box below.

This is located bottom right.

Now that your module is in place, select the top view and use the mouse wheel to zoom out so the module is a small speck on the screen.
Now pick Plane that is in the Object Type on the right hand side.
start at the corner on the top view and click and drag from one end to the other.
It should look something like this now.

Now High light your character and place it just on top of the plane, best doing this on the side view.

Part 3: Adding the Material

If you tired to render it now it would look like this.

To fix this problem go to Material Editor.
That's the icon on the top right that looks like a ball with a square next to it.

Now got the folder and Drag the BMP files in to each of these spears.
To make this easer I have named my save MQO file DRG.

• DRG.mqo - MQO File
• DRG0.bmp - Head
• DRG1.bmp - Body
• DRG2.bmp - Hands
• DRG3.bmp - Pants
• DRG4.bmp - Boots
• DRG5.bmp - Polearm

High light each part of the module separate and click on the spear that represents that part and hit the icon below it that looks like a ball point to a cube. (Assign Material to selection).

You will notice that the body part has 3 section, Body shoulder and waste, each one of them are assigned the same material.
In this case its DRG1.bmp
Now if you hit Render, it will look like this.

Part 4: Finishing Touch

Ok now we going to finish it up and make it look better.
Select the whole module and then click on the modify icon.
This icon is on the right tool bar and looks like a box with a rainbow in it.
Now click on the drop down and pick mesh smoothing and then again smoothing.
In mesh smoothing pick between Classic, Quad Output, NURMS. (In this case Quad Output works well)
On smoothing you are given some option, in the case just tick the auto smooth.

NB: This can some times mess up the mesh, so some times its best to mess around with the settings or pick one or the other.

Now we going to add a camera, so you can change the view to which you think looks better.
Now go back to the create section, this is the icon that looks like a star on the right hand side toolbar.

Now click on the icon that looks like a Camera.
You might want to zoom out on the Top Side and Front view before placing the camera.
Now click on the Target button then on the side view of the module click on where you like the camera to be.
Then drag it a bit past the module.

On the perspective view click on the Perspective (you might have to click twice) and move up to Camera.
Pick Camra01.
Now click on the movie icon, the one that shaped like a cross arrow on the top toolbar and use the 3 different views to adjust the camera angle.

Once your happy with this.
Click on the Material Editor and use the scroll bar to find a blank spear.
Click on the blank spear and then hit the Standard button.
You should get something that looks like this.

Double click on the Matte/Shadow.
Now you will see that the spear has diapered.
Drag that to the planes. (This will make it transparent in rendering)
Now click on Rendering on the top tool bar and move down to Environment.
Now change the Background color from black to white.
After that you can now close it.

On the right hand side toolbar you should see next to the camera icon a light icon, click on it.
Change the Photometric to Standard by click and picking it from the drop down menu.
Now click on Skylight.

You will notice some extra options have now appeared.
At this stage just tick the Cast Shadows in the Render section of this option.
Now click above the module To add the new light.
If you wish to move this light around then click the move icon on the top tool bar before trying to move to light.

Ok now we are ready to Render this.
Click on the Camra01 Screen, then hit the icon that looks like a teapot with a menu icon next to it.
This will take you to some advance rendering options.

I normally use these settings when rendering.

• Change output to HDTV (Video) and then click on the 1920x1080
• Hit the Render Tab
• There are some boxes already ticked, just tick these extra boxes.
  Enable SSE, Enable Global Supersampler and make sure that Max 2.5 Star is in the drop down menu.
• Make sure that the View is set to Camera01 by click on the drop down menu and picking it.

Once you done all that hit Render.
This could take a very long time, so go make your self another cup of Windurst Tea.
Once its finished rendering, it should look something like this.

You will notice that the hair dose not look right.
To fix this problem we will have to alpha map the face.
I will teach this in the next tutorial.

This finishes this tutorial and teaches you the basic that will get you started on making cool wallpapers like this.

Click on this image to download the full size and use as a wallpaper.